Ever since Kevin Dyson fell 1-yard short against the St. Louis Rams in SuperBowl XXXIV, Ishmael has dedicated his life to forever being disappointed by his favorite sports teams. He grew up in Manor, Texas and in high school exchanged his football helmet for a trumpet. His love for sports eventually crept back into his life in college at Texas State where he shifted paths and majored in Journalism and Mass Communication. Spending one day in a business calculus class helped expedite that process. Ishmael joined Dave Campbell’s as Managing Editor of Texas Basketball and Texas Coach after a three-year stint at the San Marcos Daily Record covering Texas State. He’s also a contributing writer to TexasFootball.com.

When he’s not stressing over the Bobcats on Saturdays or watching Arsenal and the Tennessee Titans lose on Sundays, you can find Ishmael drowning his sorrows in re-runs of Twin Peaks on Netflix or at a concert of his liking that he probably overpaid to attend.

Before Wednesday, the Red Raiders' (15-2, 4-1) lone loss of the season was a respectable one to then No.2 ranked Duke in New York. But Wednesday's midweek loss to Iowa State won't sit as well with the Texas Tech faithful.

Following Thursday night’s 62-48 win over West Virginia in the team’s Big XII opener, the Horned Frogs’ record pushed to 11-1 making it their best-ever start. The team’s current eight-game win streak is currently the second-longest.

Tuesday night’s 11-of-22 barrage from 3-point range helped propel Westlake’s win streak over Lake Travis to nine games. This was all without star big and Texas-bound center Will Baker contributing in a major way. Baker was held to just eight points and six boards. The two meet again January 22.

Part of me wanted to include Texas' recent losses to Radford and VCU after notching a big win over North Carolina in this, but I feel like the Longhorns are the topic of conversation too much and it's best just to let the ebbs and flows go for the next few weeks, or at least until Big XII play starts.

Texas senior guard Lashann Higgs, the team's leading returning scorer and the leading scorer at the time of her injury, will miss the remainder of the year with a torn ACL suffered back against Quinnipiac.

In between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the thick of tournament season such as the Katy ISD tournament down in the Houston area, the Georgetown Jack Frost Tournament in Central Texas and the Arlington Classic in the DFW going on right now.